Rigaud, Hyacinthe

Rigaud, Hyacinthe (Hyacinthe Rigaud y Ros) (yäsăNt` rēgō` ē rôs), 1659–1743, French portrait painter, b. Perpignan. From 1688 he became almost exclusively the official painter of the French court. His sitters included most of the royal family and distinguished visitors at Versailles. Much of his portrait style is based on Van Dyck and stresses social rank over the individuality of his subjects. He is best known for his portraits of Louis XIV, in which the regal bearing and splendid costume of the ruler are accentuated. Rigaud is well represented in the Louvre.

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Rigaud, Hyacinthe 

Born July 18, 1659, in Perpignan, Roussillon; died Dec. 29, 1743, in Paris. French portrait painter. Member of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture (1700; rector, from 1735).

Rigaud, who was influenced by A. van Dyke, was the favorite artist of the royal family and the aristocracy. His portraits served as a model for 18th-century European formal portraiture. A sense of splendor and grandeur was combined with individualistic characterization (for example, Portrait of Louis XIV, 1701, Louvre, Paris). Interest in genuine human character is revealed in Rigaud’s informal portraits of artists and writers (for example, Portrait of B. Fontenelle, Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow).

REFERENCE

Zolotov, lu. K. Frantsuzskii portret XVIII veka. Moscow, 1968.